Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number of children who will receive free school meals as the result of the transitional protections associated with the April 2018 introduction of an earned income threshold of £7,400 for universal credit claimants in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025.

The department publishes statistics annually that detail the number of pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM). The latest data show that over 2 million pupils are eligible to receive this entitlement, which is 23.8% of all pupils. This is an increase from 1.1 million eligible pupils in 2018, when extensive transitional protections were first introduced. This has ensured that children in receipt of FSM will not lose access to this entitlement, even if their household’s financial circumstances improve.

In addition, this government has extended eligibility for free school meals several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century, most notably through the introduction of universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) in 2014. The result of this is that over a third of pupils in England now receive FSM, compared with just one in six in 2010.

Data on the number of pupils eligible for FSM are based on information provided by schools in their census returns. This does not distinguish pupils who are only eligible as a result of protections, and no longer meet the eligibility criteria for FSM. The department monitors this information but does not have plans to make a formal estimate of the number of pupils who are eligible for FSM under transitional protections only.

Further to this, the department has always been clear that a child is only eligible for FSM if their family meets the eligibility criteria at the point of applying for FSM. The result may be that in some cases for children in the same household, some may be eligible for FSM whilst others are not. The department does not plan to make an estimate of this figure.

Further information is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics#dataBlock-2f5a67c4-6e66-414a-a926-f959d8b6443a-tables.